(Dampening and sound isolation mod 2 further down)

MOD 1

JVC HA-RX700 Foam mod

Cut from a sheet of foam this simple mod will not only improve the comfort but improve the soundstage due to the speakers being pushed back further from your ear. The result of a larger soundstage; better musical separation, less shrill highs, more detailed bass, not as boomy.

Please post your own mods and suggestions, a couple members here wanted to see about opening up the cans to make improvements, share with us if you've done that along with improvements.

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- Showing the RX700 with plump (pre-modded) left side and flat (stock) right side.




- This is all the mod is, a circular piece of foam that I cut out from a larger square sheet, make sure it's as wide as the headphones so it reaches all the way back under the pads. The inner circle the size of the size of the opening, any smaller and it might tickle your ear!




- Start to work the foam under the headphone pads, I started at the bottom and worked around pressing it as far in as possible. Make sure it doesn't twist.



- Almost all in, keep working it around making sure to push it all the way back.




- Once it's pushed all the way in it should just be visible but not obtrusive in anyway, this shouldn't touch your ear.




- And the finished result. Two plump sides, nice and squishy!




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MOD 2

JVC HA-RX700 Dampening mod

For this I used kitchen draw liner which I picked up from Publix for $2.99, I used half of it for my desk last week and with a bunch left over put it good use. The idea is to line the inner headphone cover which is plastic on both sides, not over the actual driver. This should add sound isolation and cut out those unwanted reverberating sounds bouncing of the plastic.

This is still a work in progress and I'll update once I've complete it fully. Right now I only applied this mod to the right side and am currently listening to the difference. What immediately struck me is how much quieter it made the right side, I had to balance out the headphones for the first time; L: 85-90% / R: 100% ~ so it's made the right side 10%-15% quieter overall. Female voices are notably still louder in the unmodified left side, however bass and treble impact is still in full swing on the modded right.

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-Remove the ear pads, just squeeze and pull. Unscrew the three screws and the driver unit will come apart.




- A closer look at the driver




- Draw liner




- I cut out a circle the size of the driver unit, allow a hole for the driver and cut a slit for wire.




- Place this in the driver unit, make 3 small holes for the screw housing.




- Once you've found a good fit make it stay in place, I used super glue and will not be held responsible if you glue your finger to your headphone.




- Do the same for the outer enclosure minus the center hole.





And thats it, close it up and screw it back together.. be careful not to trap the wire.

very good idea- this can work for many headphones

and done! that was easy. i cut strips of foam rather than trying to make a donut. it is an improvement for sure. less congested in the bass. slightly less bass but allows more amping while maintaining clean sound.

well done OP

I'll definately give this a shot! I was reading where a guy used air tube from a fish tank for a similar purpose, but foam makes more sense. I'm still planning on upgrading from the 700's, but I think they'll end up sticking around no matter what I get. The only other mod I tried that I liked was the felt removal, i didn't try the dynamat and stuffing a little foam in each cup messed up the bass really bad.

Thanks for posting this Graphicism!

Edit: Just got done doing the mod, I didn't really have much to work with, some 1/4" foam that had a sticky side (from my window A/C unit). So I took 2"X2" chunks and cut those in half, then folded them in half, stuffed up under the pad to the ridge of the cup. This really pushed the pads out, it seems to be quite a bit more comfortable. I can't really say if the sound has truly changed though, if anything I gotta agree with ourfpshero that the bass congestion seems reduced. The bass does seem a tad sharper with more punch than boom, and the hi's aren't as piercing, I think I'll keep this mod, I might play with it some though, maybe try adding more foam or less foam to see what works to my ears. So far I like what it's done, while not a massive difference to my untrained ears, there's still a slight difference. Thanks again!

Will do this to my RX900 upon my return to my crib. Thanks OP.

I tried this mod on my RX900 using donuts cut from old camping foamies awhile back. As I recall, it did improve the soundstage and attenuated the bass somewhat, but didn't improve the quality of the top-end, which was my goal at the time. Maybe it's time to revisit this mod...

(BTW, foamies are "mattresses" made of blue slabs of open-celled foam, maybe 1-2 cm thick, we used to place under sleeping bags. They've since been usurped by much more comfortable self-inflating air mattresses.)

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That was quick, you finished that not long after I posted. Yes I suppose foam would work, I think it's important that the foam be flush on the ear pad, if the pads are raised without it could be blocking some of the sound. Less bass congestion is what I found too, it really just cleans that up a bit. I've had the pads out a few times now to compare and the difference is astounding, beats me why JVC didn't put better pads on to begin with... although saying that I think they've already made something that sounds much better than a $33 headphone.

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As I said to ourfpshero just make sure they are flush with the pads, otherwise you could be blocking some sound which will bounce off the raised pads. To listen to the difference without taking the foam out try and push the cups towards your head so that your ears just touch the cans fabric, you should find that the music is a lot more centered in your head as opposed to open and separated.

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Yes I suppose this would work for the 900s also, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on it.

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The top end sibilance should be calmed with burn-in, I've had mine going for over 200 hours now and it's slowly starting to calm down, I have about 500 hours planed, if after that it hasn't cleared up then I'll look into the felt mod... until then I'm holding off on that undoable mod.

I did a revision a few minutes ago, I took those folded pieces out, stuck em together, trimmed the ends as to have no tape residue, made some more clones so I'd have about 1" wide x 1/2" on this foam which isn't very dense. Seemed to be an improvement, I had to turn the bass down, but it was a sharper punch it seemed to be more even with the rest of the audio, which sounds nice and clear, my ears are happier, I had to adjust one more notch larger, but they're very comfy now and sound great! Thanks again Graphicism!

Just added the second mod above for dampening and sound isolation.

I'll definately have to give that a shot! Too bad BigLots closed down over here a year back...they had rolls of that stuff for 99 cents. I might still have some, definately seems interesting enough to try and these cans are uber easy to disassemble so it's worth the 5 minutes to do it! Thanks again Graphicism!

This second mod seems similar to the HA-RX900 mod involving dynamat. In way way does it impact the sound? You were pretty vague when you mentioned it.

Also, don't forget the felt "removal" mod. It helps bring out the mids and treble.

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Most welcome. You're right there easy to open so it's a quick mod, although make sure you aren't too hasty when opening them, otherwise you'll be soldering too!

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Yeah I'm sure it's been done before, just figured I would add a short example along with some pictures. As I've still only got one ear done I'll hold off on the review, all I know is it's about 15% quieter. I'd speculate it tighten things up further, sound doesn't linger as long in the cage, and the highs shouldn't be harsh any more.

What piece of felt are we talking about here, I already feel they are quite forward in the mids..

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Harsh highs? Do we own the same headphones? Heh, I thought they were actually a bit recessed.

The mids are fine. It doesn't change them too much, but it does brighten things up a bit (sounds less muddy in the top end). The felt part is mentioned in the big HA-RX900 mod thread right off the bat. It's the same thing, basically.

Where did you get that foam at? All I have to work with right now is styrafoam peanuts, but they're too stiff and keep the drivers too far off my ears. Unless I press them towards my ears, my attempt at the first mod doesn't sound good. Would Hobby Lobby have anything like that?

I had the foam left over from hard drive packaging I bought way back in 2000, I would think anything similar would work... perhaps not styrafoam peanuts. You could in fact remove the ear pads and stuff them with cotton wool (or similar) from the back, I'm pretty sure there open like that. The idea really is just to thicken them up setting the speaker driver back a little.